You should never fertilize a stressed plant! From your description you overwatered and it rotted. I would get a new one and this time cut back on your watering. Good luck!

I would do both: buy another plant and try to nurse your sick plant back to health. Either way, you will learn something.

Take the sickly plant out of the MG water and prune any dark, rotting roots. Treat it like a cutting-plant in dry or barely damp, clean mix dont water right now, but place it in a plastic baggie to keep moisture in the leaves. Put in a nice shady spot and be sure to give it fresh air everyday. This worked for me on a dracenea i saved, but the same method didnt work on another drac. It really all depends

root rot is one of the worst things that can happen to a plant. Sometimes you can save them and sometimes you cant-depends on how soon you catch it.

good luck and be sure to buy another plant ;)

You cant lose anything except time and effort in trying to bring the plant back but I agree, its probably in plant heaven now.

You bought a houseplant and its home is a pot.
So why did you think it needed an outside planting.
The pot confined the size of the soil it was in, it also confined the amount of moisture (water) it received to nurture itself on.

But, with both in the garden, it received far too much water, the pot took it all in and didn't release it fast enough. The roots undoubtedly rotted out.

At the first sign of too much water sitting around roots, the plant stops being able to draw nutrition from the water.
Even though it was there....it couldn't use it and soon stops entirely feeding itself. In effect, it starved itself to death.

The phil is a houseplant and while it can go outside during nice weather, it should be given care as strictly as what it is...a house plant.

Plants grow according to their size of pot. But a plant that should be in a 4" pot, given an 8" pot, will soon show you it should not have been given the bigger home.
Roots can only feed the plant what it receives from the soil and given too much food, it rebels. That's what happens when you put a plant into a pot with too great a source of food.

It would have proven better to remove it from its pot, then given the garden place where good drainage would have treated it better. Mind you, the phil is not a garden plant. Most, if not all, houseplants are tropical.

Let your new plant please you in its own way---in a pot....in your home.

Great post. Very informative.

:-D

There is no reason why a SLP cannot live in zone 9 outside, it would just need to be protected in winter. Walmart sells them as bedding plants for crying out loud! I see philos outside all the time here in zone 9, some planted in the ground! Clip all the dead off of the plant and if you want it outside, plant it under a tree where it will get lots of shade and be able to climb. Keep it moist, not soppy, and if it does survive, mulch it well in the winter. It will die back, but if you've proteced the roots well enough it will come back.

Hi Sony,...cut a few stems..if the inside is green, the plant is still alive..if they're brown/mushy, most likely it's gone. What do stems look like? Cut back to the base..Since you're in z9, like Mentha stated, plant beside a tree or pole, something to climb on. Toni